jetsetter

I have a great friend from college who I speak about whenever the subject of travel happens to surface  at a dinner party or in casual conversation. We’ll call him the “Travellin’ Man” since I’m sure he wouldn’t appreciate me using his real name on this Blog. I am definitely envious of his travel experience. Its really difficult to name a place TM hasn’t been.  After speaking with him recently, I learned that he’s actually kind of burned out on the whole — around the world non-stop — life. At first I looked at him like he was crazy. But after thinking about it for a moment, I understood completely.

You see, TM started this travel thing about ten years ago when we were college freshmen at Morehouse in Atlanta, GA. After he escaped the Navy ROTC program before the rest of us, I think he enrolled in the Arizona BIOSPHERE program and he was gone by 2nd semester.

The next time we saw him the following semester he was full of stories and had already gained more of a perspective than any of us who had our run of the mill experiences on campus and nearby. There was just something different about him that none of us could quite put our finger on.

After that, we rarely saw TM. He participated in Semester at Sea and visited countless countries and sites around the world. One particular summer he came back to campus to be a counselor  for the Prospective Student Seminar for incoming freshmen. I happened to be interning in the Neuroscience Dept. that summer so I was on campus. We spent alot of time talking about the world and what he had seen. He felt a little disconnected being gone so much and not really having a home to speak of besides the ship. I couldn’t help but think of how I wanted to be disconnected from some of the madness in the US. That feeling still pervades my psyche.

As TM prepares to bring an end to his almost eleven years of constant travel, my travels began much later. My travels are not constant. They are sporadic enough to help me appreciate each locale. I think it was ingenius to travel so young and so often. I wish I would have listened when TM said “you should sign up for Bisophere II man.” At the time I was too wrapped up in campus life to know that the world awaited.

Until Next Time,

 Sirius

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